Buy it... if you've been hesitant to tolerate Hans Zimmer and
crew's overly-processed, bass-heavy pirate music in the past, Geoff
Zanelli steering the franchise's music towards a more dynamic, symphonic
tone.

Avoid it... if you expect this new team of ghostwriters to solve
all the ills caused by Zimmer in the past, an excess of forced thematic
references and lingering mixing issues countering some strong new themes
for this entry.

EDITORIAL REVIEW

FILMTRACKS TRAFFIC RANK: #1,541

WRITTEN
7/1/17

BUY IT

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales:
(Geoff Zanelli/Various) The Jerry Bruckheimer juggernaut of a franchise
based upon the popular Disneyland attraction lumbers into its fifth
entry in 2017, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
attempting to reboot the franchise's storyline as to capture the
original magic of the initial 2003 entry. The concept was in peril after
a mediocre showing for On Stranger Tides in 2011, and two years
of post-production hell awaited the much delayed Dead Men Tell No
Tales. While the grosses from these films, not to mention critical
response, keep diminishing with each continuing project, it's clear that
the 2017 film seeks to reinvest in the original characters and ships of
the franchise. While new, cursed villains, Spanish Captain Salazar and
his undead crew, seek to destroy the beloved Jack Sparrow, the
franchise's secondary characters are joined by a new heroine, Carina
Smyth, in an alliance to find the mythological trident to release all
the various curses plaguing them. With the reintroduction of Will Turner
and Elizabeth Swann, and the development of a younger generation of
characters ripe for future films, Dead Men Tell No Tales hopes to
be a transition to salvation for the concept on screen. The
reintegration of so many prior characters and vessels posed an dilemma
for the soundtrack for this film, the project still residing firmly in
the domain of Hans Zimmer's Remote Control Productions, which, depending
on how you look at the universe (and, mostly, how old you are), either
destroyed or saved "pirate music" in general with the success of the
2003 score. Zimmer, who had confessed to being burnt out on this
franchise, found himself unable to score the 2017 project due to
scheduling conflicts (Dunkirk and, one could humorously say, all
those infomercials selling himself as a professor), but that didn't stop
the RC team from simply shifting the same group of core orchestrators
over to a new gang of half a dozen or so yo-ho co-composers. Master
arranger Geoff Zanelli has been present in this franchise since the
start, toiling as the ghostwriter responsible for several of its
secondary themes, and he is now elevated to lead composer with his own
team of ghostwriters, none of whom receive front cover credit. Or back
cover credit, for that matter. The usual small print applies.

All the procedural problems that plagued the collaborative
compositional effort for the prior Pirates of the Caribbean
scores continue to persist in Dead Men Tell No Tales, though at
least they aren't as obnoxiously obvious as they were in the puzzling
On Stranger Tides, a score nearly widely blasted by even
franchise enthusiasts. Zanelli is a talented composer, known mostly for
his Emmy-winning work on television, one seemingly more classically
inclined than Zimmer and other ghostwriters on the RC team. His
arrangement work involving the "William Tell Overture" for The Lone
Ranger remains one of the most remarkable pieces of film music in
the decade. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that Zanelli is a
solid choice to replace Zimmer as the main coordinator of a score in
this franchise, for the loyalty to concept themes remains intact. In
fact, the adherence to the prior musical identities is so staunch in
Dead Men Tell No Tales that it's almost distractingly
perfunctory. You hear different existing melodies reprised depending
upon which ghostwriter is contributing a certain cue, and this score as
a whole becomes a head-whipping exercise in trying to chase down all the
inclusions. Most of these references are quite smart, really, as the
composers do everything to address even hints, shadows, or, in this
case, children, of prior concepts with snippets of secondary themes from
the previous scores. The problem with this approach comes when Dead
Men Tell No Tales is treated to its own trio of major new themes,
one of which established to persist in future films, increasing the
overall count of melodies to untenable levels as the team of
ghostwriters continues to insist upon dropping references to all
applicable identities wherever possible. Also of serious consideration
is the "sound" of the franchise, dominated up until this score by the
heavily processed, bass-heavy manipulation of organic performances to
make them sound synthetic. Zimmer had written some strong themes in his
first three scores only to annihilate their effectiveness by running
them through amplifiers and other ridiculous means of boosting their
masculinity. Enthusiasts of the Golden Age of swashbucklers who admire
everything from The Sea Hawk to Cutthroat Island objected
mostly to the pounding synthetic personality of these scores, and
Zanelli throws a kink into that equation with Dead Men Tell No
Tales.

More intriguing about this fifth score in the franchise
than its dizzying thematic attributions is Zanelli's attempt to
perpetuate the score's core instrumental identity while ditched the
heavy processing in favor of a more symphonic alternative. In the
writing, orchestration, and recording of Dead Men Tell No Tales,
you can hear a more dynamic soundscape trying to peek through the usual
staccato brass figures and seemingly omnipresent lines for cello solo.
He balances a duduk as the centerpiece of one of his themes with an
enhanced percussion section that rips away almost constantly.
Fortunately, like the absence of bass region clipping due to insane gain
levels, the percussion is also placed a bit further back. For some
listeners, though, any improvements in the soundscape here will be
negated by the poor placement of everything else in the mix, including
still-struggling winds. It's odd to consider that a score of this
physical size could sound so poorly placed in the left and right
channels, every instrumental contributor squashed together in one
monolithic mass that gives the score the odd sound of a massive
symphonic recording forced into a monaural tunnel. It's a great example
of a franchise taking one big step forward (ditching the manipulation
and overwhelming bass) and moving another step backwards (failing to
really spread out the recording in the mix), a recipe for irritating
both the fans and detractors of the franchise's music. The "arrangement
factor" and blatant ripping of temp tracks is another issue to contend
with here, the former already discussed in the possible over-spotting of
themes. In the percussive lines of Dead Men Tell No Tales, you'll
hear Tom Holkenborg emerge, especially in relation to Mad Max: Fury
Road in "Kill the Sparrow." The snare tapping and chimes at then
conclusion of two late cues will remind of Backdraft ballsy-ness.
The most humorously awful temp track work of recent times exists at 6:08
into "El Matador del Mar," which takes upwards of a minute from Zimmer's
"Barbarian Horde" and subsequent transitions in Gladiator, even
down to the super-obvious double blasts of low brass. Do these
ghostwriters believe that listeners won't notice such ridiculously
transparent emulation? Indeed, some fans of the franchise will feel the
same way about the beloved themes of the franchise that reappear,
especially those from At World's End, which is universally
considered the best of Zimmer and team's work in the concept. It's great
to hear old themes, but not when they are forced without much grace into
a new environment.

Aside from newfound salvation for your subwoofers and
relief from post-concussion protocols, the highlight of Zanelli's
approach to Dead Men Tell No Tales is the trio of new themes for
concepts introduced in this film. To his credit, the composer manages to
make all three easily memorable, a technique that Zimmer has used to
storm the mainstream for decades. The main new identity is a stunner,
affording Carina Smyth with a romantic melody to rival the Turner and
Swann "Marry Me" love theme from At World's End. It owes a few
bars to Basil Poledouris' 1998 work for Les Misérables,
but never mind that. Heard immediately at the outset of "Dead Men Tell
No Tales," this theme takes a while to develop as the character asserts
herself, hinted, for instance, at the end of "Shansa." Its major reveal
comes in "The Brightest Star in the North," the full choral-aided
rendition at 2:20 a highlight of the score. The focused performances of
the idea in the final two cues are quite satisfying, the upbeat
presentation in the middle of "Beyond My Beloved Horizon" featuring a
quicker tempo, tapped light percussion rhythm, and pinpoint trumpet
accents. Often mingling with Carina's theme is the one for the trident,
generally representing the various curses of the sea with perhaps the
most placements of any melody in the picture. This eerie idea is
established in the first minute of "Dead Men Tell No Tales," the exotic
sound of a duduk representing that other-worldly presence in several
subsequent reprises, including the start of "She Needs the Sea." Less
obvious hints of the theme exist in all but one of the first six tracks
on the album, keenly connecting the other character themes together. The
trident theme is extended to the action realm on brass at 1:56 in "The
Power of the Sea" and for choir and percussion at 0:27 in "Treasure,"
where its alternation between major and minor-key resolutions conveys
the wonder and evil of its presence. By comparison, the theme for the
evil Salazar is rather straight forward, the closest element to Zimmer's
previous droning for the franchise. Stomping in pure Zimmeresque bravado
in "Salazar," this theme uses guitars and processed strings with
slamming percussion to make it clear that this character is not
redeemable. Even by "El Matador del Mar," the theme still hasn't matured
much, adding more brass and choir but still pounding away with menace
and a touch of Maximus Decimus Meridius. While ultimately a rather dull
musical identity for Salazar, it's certainly effective and within the
methodology of prior villains' themes in the franchise. Fortunately, its
presence is not as prevalent as the other two, far superior new
themes.

As for the bevy of returning themes in Dead Men Tell
No Tales, there are positives and negatives. Some strong
interpolations reside here, and there is definitely a benefit to hearing
some of these ideas expressed more symphonically. Both the "He's a
Pirate" franchise identity and "Marry Me" love theme have been marred in
the past by Zimmer's extremely heavy post-processing, and they enjoy new
life to an extent here. The "He's a Pirate" theme is all over the work,
guiding the latter portions of "No Woman Has Ever Handled My Herschel"
and reappearing in "Kill the Filthy Pirate, I'll Wait" and "El Matador
del Mar" before opening "Beyond My Beloved Horizon" with the obligatory
send-off. The "Marry Me" theme, meanwhile, is consolidated to the
inevitable guilty-pleasure favorite of the score, "My Name is Barbossa,"
where its strings smartly join the "One Day" theme on horns to address
familial connections. The "Jack Sparrow" action theme is also a frequent
visitor, heard in "No Woman Has Ever Handled My Herschel," "Kill the
Filthy Pirate, I'll Wait," "El Matador del Mar," "She Needs the Sea" and
in victorious conclusion at the end of "My Name is Barbossa." The "Hoist
the Colours" idea is revived a few times, notable as it informs the
grand cue, "The Dying Gull," for Sparrow's new ship. A number of other
cues are flush with lesser references, "She Needs the Sea," "I've Come
with the Butcher's Bill," and "Treasure" the most obvious. (It should be
noted that if "I've Come With the Butcher's Bill" sounds unique in tone,
that's because ghostwriter Steve Mazzaro reportedly arranged that cue.)
Sadly, some of the more notable thematic references in the film are not
conveyed on the otherwise generous Disney album for Dead Men Tell No
Tales, though the product does feature the primary highlights. The
score as a whole is challenging to rate because Zanelli and the RC gang
have solved some of the franchise's ills only to create other ones.
There is no doubt that At World's End will remain the most
alluring of the franchise for those not bothered by Zimmer's incessant
bass enhancements and synthetic manipulation, for it features lasting
compositional prowess. But if you remain an enthusiast of the "old"
swashbuckling sound of soaring orchestral flightiness, and you
disregarded the franchise after the truly wretched pair of Curse of
the Black Pearl and Dead Man's Chest, then Dead Men Tell
No Tales is a second chance waiting to entice you into Zimmer's new
pirate sound with a softer touch. The last two tracks on the album, most
specifically, along with "The Brightest Star in the North," may offer
some redemption for tired ears. If only the collective RC crew could
widen the soundscape of these recordings a bit further, there is hope
that a more dynamic future for this franchise's music awaits. ***@Amazon.com: CD or
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